Iron-on veneer as side wood?

Can pieces of iron-on veneer be used for guitar sides instead of bending thicker pieces of wood to shape? The veneer is of course much easier to bend and put into shape but will there be any unwanted side effect of gluing together three pieces of veneer to form a side than to heat bend a 2 mm thick piece?

The iron on veneers have a hot melt glue that stay slightly flexible, and is quite thick. Structurally that will probably cause trouble. You could use normal veneer and wood glue to make a form of plywood. If you do you will probably need to clamp the pieces to their final shape to prevent the wood from cracking.

Also keep in mind that if you sand through the outer layer of veneer it will most likely be noticeable.

I have never tried it on sides. Generally I am very impressed with paper backed veneer. I veneered a couple of guitar tops. I use a process which is incredibly easy, at least on flat tops! Couple of issues. . . It will be difficult to iron this on edges. Vacuum bagging would be ideal! Assuming a natural finish? If you veneer the side you will see flat grain like an acoustic instead of end grain like a solid body.

if I were to try this it would be with contact cement and a thick poly finish. I believe getting tight, square glue edges will be challenging.

Worked like a charm on the edging for my Viola bass, but the maple veneer was not the iron-on glue type. Just good quality veneer and wood glue worked fine. We also used some veneer softener and got the veneer softened up for some radical bending in advance: